6
minute read
Feb. 12, 2021 | by Mary Ventresca, Vice President of Marketing & Business Development at PATTISON Outdoor
Canadians are arguably a positive and optimistic people, especially when the final weeks of winter begin to give way to spring. These sentiments were evident as early as January 2021 when vaccines began to rollout across the country. A number of consumer studies demonstrated the growing optimism about the economy, the future job market and the return to pre-pandemic norms.
For example, Bloomberg and Nanos Research’s Canadian Confidence Tracker for the week of January 29, 2021 found that Economic Optimism was equal to the same pre-pandemic period in 2020 at 56%.
As for who is feeling most optimistic about the economy, it’s Adults 40+, a notable large swath of Canada’s population and a demographic cohort that comes with higher household and disposable incomes. These Canadians actually feel more optimistic about the economy in January, 2021 than they did in January 2020!
The implications of an optimistic public bodes well for brands and businesses, but only if they do not delay in connecting with consumers.
A January 2021 study from IMI found that Canadians still prefer to shop in-person which runs counter to consumers in the US and UK. In Canada, the online experience was often found to be lackluster according to other studies done in 2020. But more importantly, Canadians simply prefer to be out of their homes when it comes to shopping and doing leisure activities, such as traveling and visiting entertainment venues like attending auto shows.
“There is a population out there, salivating to get out and experience life, something we have not seen in our lifetimes,” Mayo says. “There is huge pent up demand for sporting events, travel and community events.” Don Mayo, Global Managing Partner, IMI
As mentioned, some brands and businesses may take a wait-it-out approach to see whether this optimism materializes into consumer spending. They need not wait to find out. There was another period in this past year where Canadian confidence and pent-up demand to be outside and shopping already occurred. In late Fall 2020, as news of vaccine approvals became headlines, confidence and optimism began to grow. So much so that RBC reported that Canadians spent more money in the 2020 holiday shopping than they did any year in the past decade.
So, we’ve already seen Canadians have pent-up demand to live life outside their homes and to spend robustly. And their ability to spend robustly has never been stronger. In its February 1, 2021 issue, Macleans Magazine, citing Statistics Canada and various economists found that
“Canadians are sitting on the largest cash hoard in recorded history, thanks to the pandemic-era lockdowns. And they don’t know what to do with it all.”
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